Got these from Danish builder Joern. They show newly restored OY-BXU and Joern’s model of it. I have to say that they both look great!
Tag: PIK-16c Vasama
PIK-16c OH-284
Pics of one of nicest PIK-16c Vasama’s currently in working condition. OH-284, pics taken at Oripää Vintage Gliding event 21.5.2013.
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
Here are some extremely rare pictures. These come from Denmark, from Ebbe Jakobsen via Joern Rasmussen. They show rescue operation of OY-BXU. Some words of the state of plane by Joern;
Vejle Glider Club bought it in 1966 or 67 but sold it on in 1977. She needs a major overhaul/restoration but the seems to have the money now. Ebbe Jakobsen had many pleasant hours flying her the last 5 year the club had it.
Hope that Vejle Glider Club and Ebbe & Joern will get this beautiful plane up to air once again.
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
PIK-16c Vasama OY-BXU from Vejle Glider Club
And then some vacuuming…
It’s time to do some vacuum molding. Theory is simple. Heat plastic using frame, slap it on top of mold with base perforated with holes to allow suction to pull plastic down.
That’s theory. In practice it means several try’s and fails. But eventually I found better settings. I was forced to order new sheets from stockist (5 large sheets in total (1.5×2.5m or something..), that means plenty of plastic). With smaller canopies it seems that 0.5mm stuff is optimal, but anything bigger really needs 0.75mm. I am using PET-G and APET sheets from local ETRA-shop. Which is really professional shop for all kinds of industrial stuff. I am using brands Vivak and NudePetG (funny…).
Anyway – now I have plenty of L-70 Vinka & PIK-16c Vasama canopies. Along with PIK-18 Sytky cowlings. Actually I have 3 vac boxes for different size molds. You might notice that biggest one needs double vacuums to do the trick. Actually that vac box is designed with oven size as an guide. It really is the biggest one which I can make without resorting to more exotic stuff.
Next step is to finetune PIK-15 Hinu (1.5m) canopy and cowling and do at least 4 sets of those. Also I need new batch of my really pro aileron covers.
Vinka L-70 canopy
PIK-16c Vasama
And there it is…
PIK-18 Sytky cowling ready for some serious vacuuming..
Continuing work with canopy moulds.
Then next steps with canopy stuff. Finalized 1/3 PIK-16c Vasama canopy and PIK-18 Sytky cowling. Then did initial work for finalizing Valmet Vinka L-70 Miltrainer canopy. Incidentally, that same canopy is utilized in Redigo L-90 and PIK-23 Suhinu. I guess that Finnish aviation ‘industry’ is so small that we are experienced recyclers of designs. The good news is that I will be able to do several models with one canopy effort. Still needs final sanding etc.
Ps : I added commenting features to this blog. And now with spam filtering etc. functions. It will be interesting to see how much Vuitton bags and UGG-stuff I will see in comments. Last time it was totally horrendous.
(now) finalized canopy of PIK-16c Vasama 1/3
Cowling of PIK-18 Sytky
Almost done L-70 Vinka canopy.
Continued work with Vasama canopy
This summer has been rather long and .. it’s time to get back to building. Time to finalize Vasama canopy. Canopy form is ready, but the front and rear parts that allow vacuum moulding to work were missing. Not anymore. Used soft balsa to make them. Still some sanding needed to finalize stuff but it is quite ready.
Sadly no plastic so cannot do moulds today.
Additional pieces glued.
Getting there. Still needs some sanding.
Regarding PIK-16a Vasama
And that brings us to most interesting topic. My original intention was to make also PIK-16a Vasama as the only difference is fuselage and tail section. Wing is (almost) identical with only difference of sheeting. 16a has full width sheeting, 16c has ‘half’ sheeting with cap strips, so no design difference.
I started drafting 16a using only existing 3-view which I am aware and quickly noticed that it is most flawed. It’s canopy area is almost 100% different than the original’s canopy area. You can make comparision by yourself easily. Just compare Vasama-biography-book 3-view and Raunio’s PIK-book pictures. They are not from same plane. I did contact Vasama aviation club members last summer and the 3-view in Vasama-book is the only one they have found.
So unless I manage to find better 3-view this project is waiting. I could easily design something resembling 16a because it is really quite straightforward fuselage. BUT I would end up with something which is nice looking, but it is not 16a. Bad.
This is quite sad situation as PIK-16a is extremely nice looking plane with it’s v-tail and shorter nose (that is 0,2m shorter compared to 16c).
Anyone happen to have something to help me?
Vasama stats
Oops, I forgot to add some vital statistics to Vasama case. Wingspan 5m, profile at root HQ30-12 and HQ30-10 at tip of panel 1. Second panel has HQ30-10 all the way. I had to use 2 panels per wing to retain scale appearance. If you look closely original 3-views you notice that there is an wedge at TE of wing. To make that kind of wing in Profili you need to use 2 panels. Actual building can be done in one go, ie the panels are just to allow Profili to keep up with wedge. Elevator is Naca 0009. In rudder I used quite interesting design. The root of rudder has Naca 0010 and tip has Naca 0012. So the relative thicknes increases to tip. This is due the fact that the rudder tapers aggressively. Logically thickness to rudder tapers also. And it looks too funny. So I increase relative thickness to decrease effect of tapering :).
An new project finalized & ready for building : PIK-16c Vasama
I completed couple days ago an new designproject which has been long overdue. It is one of most beautiful Finnish sailplanes, PIK-16c Vasama. Only sailplane which has been mentioned being more beautiful is it’s predecessor, PIK-16a.
16c was quite complicated design. It looks rather simple, but in fact it is tremendously challenging. It’s way of connecting wings to fuselage is structurally quite difficult and it caused a lot of head-scratching. But I guess that I have found way to simplify it and now it is buildable. You can find that design in www.iwaru.fi/vasama.html. But do not expect to see it finalized anytime soon. I am buried in build projects. It’s estimated time of build is approx 2013 spring. If everything works out nicely. Unless somebody is brave enough to volunteer for beta building.
